1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of digital circuitry. More particularly, this invention relates to slaveless synchronous system design.
2. Background
Computer technology is continually progressing, providing more and more computing power in continually smaller packages. One method employed to obtain this increased power is to place more and more components onto a single integrated circuit (IC) chip. This can be accomplished by reducing the size of the individual components as well as reducing the number of components required to perform various functions. Many of the components on an IC are controlled or "clocked" by a clock signal and are commonly referred to as synchronous components. In general, the clock signal in a device is used to identify when signals are to be transferred between devices.
One component which is commonly used in a wide variety of ICs is a latch. A latch typically stores a single bit of data and is typically controlled by a clock signal. Different types of latches exist which can be used in ICs, including pulse latches and single- and two-phase latches.
It is beneficial to use single- or two-phase latches in some situations, such as when a designer wishes to use the benefits of time borrowing across phases of a clock cycle. However, some problems do exist with their use. One such problem is power consumption. Because there are two portions to the single- and two-phase latches, each activated by different phases of a clock signal, two different types of clock signals must be routed to each of the single- and two-phase latches on the IC. An additional problem is that of clock skew. By requiring the routing of an additional clock signal for the second portion of the latch, as well as the additional load on the clock signal line caused by the second portion of the latch, the skew of the clock signal is increased. Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a way to reduce the effects of the problems associated with using single- and two-phase latches.
As will be described in more detail below, the present invention provides a slaveless synchronous system design that achieves these and other desired results which will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description to follow.